US envoys meet Putin to revive Russia-Ukraine peace efforts

MOSCOW, Nov 12: U.S. President Donald Trump’s envoys met Thursday with President Vladimir Putin as Washington sought new momentum in peace efforts after two days of U.S.-mediated negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian delegations.

Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who is also Trump’s son-in-law, brokered the talks in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, the first direct discussions between representatives of Moscow and Kyiv in nine months as the push for peace stalled.

The two days of talks that ended Wednesday produced no major breakthrough, aside from an agreement to swap a large number of prisoners, with the exact figure still to be announced.

Kushner and Witkoff went straight to the Kremlin to brief Putin, and are scheduled to fly later to Dublin, Ireland, for talks with Ukrainian President VolodymyrZelenskyy as the conflict stretches towad the five-year mark.

Kushner said that one of the goals of the meeting with Putin was to get the Russian leader’s blessing for European representatives to be part of the talks, which are looking at the continent’s broader security arrangements.

The U.S. and Zelenskyy want Europe to appoint a single person to negotiate with Moscow.
But Moscow doesn’t want European countries involved in the direct negotiations, complaining they are financing and supplying Ukraine’s military effort. The Europeans are concerned about Russia’s conduct and broader intentions on the continent.

Many in Europe see the inclusion of Moscow in discussions about postwar European security as an unwelcome concession to Putin, who has described NATO’s eastward expansion as a main security threat to Russia. Putin has demanded the trans-Atlantic alliance’s troops be pulled back from Russia’s borders.

Some analysts say negotiators may be looking to grant Russia concessions on NATO’s strategy in return for peace in Ukraine �" a possibility that alarms European leaders.

The Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Abu Dhabi “agreed on many of the principles, but are still apart on some of the way to accomplish” peace, Kushner said in Moscow.

Putin reaffirmed to the U.S. envoys Moscow’s rejection of any European troop presence in Ukraine, saying that Russia sees them as a security threat to its security and warns that they would be legitimate targets. �"AP